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Businesses cough up £6m for unlicensed software

03 August 2009

Businesses across Europe, the Middle East and Africa have paid out £6 million this year to settle disputes with the Business Software Alliance.

The BSA has received £435 000 from UK companies in settlements and payments for getting software properly licensed in the first half of this year.

Overall, firms across EMEA paid out £2.1m in settlements and £4m in licence costs.

The BSA has pursued a policy of taking legal action against companies that break software licensing laws and accepting settlements from those that are prepared to admit wrongdoing.

"BSA conducts more than 30 legal actions every working day in EMEA", said Sarah Coombes, senior director of legal affairs for the BSA.

"In the current economic conditions I am concerned that so many businesses continue to flout copyright laws by using unlicensed software," she added.

Last month, the BSA landed its biggest settlement so far, when a German company was forced to pay out €1.1m in a combination of damages and licensing costs.

This article was first published by Computer Weekly

 

This article is featured in:
Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery

 

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